Is it conspiracy theory or conspiracy fact?
A large part of my obsession with crypto is decentralisation, the prospect of having control of your own finances, the responsibility of living and dying by your decisions, the freedom to spend your hard earned money on the next 100x coin or a doomed PFP, all without a banker breathing down your neck ultimately deciding what you can do with your money.
Recently I have encountered a few places that refuse to take cash, normally this results in me receiving free things. Only last week I was treated to free parking because I tried to pay with cash and they refused to take it, rather than accept legal tender they printed me out a ticket and said I was free to go, madness.
In the spirit of January and short lived resolutions I decided that I would join a gym, for the people in the UK it's called Everyone Active, I went for a look around the local venue the other day and returned today to set up my direct debit and pay the initial month fee. As soon as I mentioned paying cash I was told I wasn't allowed because of COVID, I understand the safety first approach but I also prioritise a common sense approach, the receptionist was happy to handle paper forms, receipts, a pen, basically anything I gave her but was outright refusing to handle cash. I was told I couldn't join unless I paid by card, so I left and joined another gym that accepts money.
Now you may be reading this thinking "why don't you just pay on card and stop being difficult", I understand this point but with my first paragraph in mind my reply would be "why should I?". I am still trying to pay with legal currency and I am being refused, normally this was reserved for fake notes or scammers, not normal citizens trying to shed some post-COVID pounds.
So where does this leave us? The talk in the conspiracy community for a long time has been cashless society, a society where every transaction is tracked and approved by the government and with digital currencies becoming ever popular such as the Digital Yuan, this kind of society seems closer than ever. The fact that cash seems to be increasingly considered unacceptable, at least in the UK, certainly seems to be putting us on a road where this "theory" becomes reality.
With this in mind decentralisation appears more important than ever. In my opinion we are at a crucial point in history, we can take the decentralised, open source, community driven approach and welcome in Web3 built by and maintained by "the people", or we can follow along a path of government backed digital currencies where you really are at the mercy of institutions if you wish to spend your money.
Whether you agree or disagree with your current government it is worth considering that one day someone with bad intentions is elected and gains control over this system. In my country Conservative leader Boris Johnson is pretty much at the point of being universally hated by everyone and yet he is our Prime Minister until the next election. Imagine he is in control of such a monetary system and his administration has control over your score and purchasing power, suddenly all of those anti-Conservative, anti-Boris, and questioning remarks that you made are now used against you. Sorry, this month you can only spend 20% of your wages because you said Boris Johnson is bad and shouldn't go to war with Russia, this is an example but it is entirely possible.
For a long time I have taken all money out of my bank and put it into various coins and tokens, overall it's worked really well over the years and I only sell to make sure my bills are covered, I have asked one company if they'll accept Bitcoin but so far they said no. The reason I don't leave money in the bank is mainly because I consider it dead money, I don't know what the interest rate of my bank account is but I would be surprised if it was 1% APY. You can earn more than this with almost any DeFi staking rewards.
Imagine leaving money in your bank account to earn 1% a year while inflation is currently about 6% officially but is probably higher in reality.
I don't want this post to come across as politically motivated, it is more a reflection of the current state of my country and the way the world is heading. We have been granted a huge opportunity to bypass these archaic institutions that we all know care about profit over people, a chance to put some power back into our hands and build a whole new financial system. Cryptocurrency has a big role to play in the way we move forward, I understand a lot of these "currencies" are effectively an open ledger which can be scrutinised by anyone, however there is still an air of anonymity to it, open a new wallet, deposit through a decentralised exchange and you're completely anonymous again.
This is apparent when it comes to taxes, recently my government demanded Coinbase supply all activity of accounts that have traded over £3000, of course Coinbase will comply. Now there is no hiding, anything going through centralised exchanges will be demanded by the government to hit you with a tax bill. CryptoCurrency literally means Hidden Currency, this definition is being demolished day by day by institutions and I fear we are losing our way and being forced into a path that treats cryptocurrency like stocks. It is a game of cat and mouse that will evolve over time, more ways to hide transactions, opening new wallets, fake hacks, there are plenty of ways to conceal your true value for now but this may not be forever.
My only hope is that we do not waste the golden opportunity we have been given.
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